History of the site

Jews arrived in large numbers in Sławków, as in many cities of Kielce Governorate, at the end of the 19th century. In 1896 they built a brick synagogue, then a wooden mikvah, by 1903 they established five Jewish elementary schools and a religious community in 1904. The Jews of Sławków would bury their dead in a graveyard in the nearby village of Krzykawka. The oldest burial identified based on the tombstones dates back to 1904. It shows that funeral services had been held on the premises of the Krzykawka estate well before the formal purchase of the land by the Jewish communities from Sławków and Strzemieszyce in 1907.  Out of two morgens of land purchased from Karol Gaszyński, half a morgen was allocated to a Jewish cemetery. The burial area was surrounded by a wooden fence and later a stone wall. A funeral home and a caretaker’s apartment were built on the neighbouring plot. In 1928 the first rabbi of the Jewish community in Sławków, Szulim, son of Mosze Juda Zając, was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Krzykawka. An ohel was placed over his grave. Szamuel Jurkiewicz, the son of Josef, descendant of Tzadik Elimelech from Leżajsk and Tzaddik Dawid, the son of Chaim Halberszt from Sącz, were also buried here. In 1939 the cemetery was the burial ground for Jews murdered by the Germans in the first days of WW2 near the bridge on the Biała Przemsza Riven and in the village of Koźle. The site survived the warfare period in a good condition. In the 1960s, on the initiative of a Sławków Jew, Daniel Landsman, the cemetery underwent renovation; the fence was also renewed and a metal gate was installed with the date of 1966. The last burial in the cemetery in Krzykawka took place in 1971. In the years 1991-92, Prof. Jan Samek with his team conducted an inventory of the necropolis.

Site description

The Jewish cemetery in Krzykawka is located in the west end of Bolesław Commune, on the border with Sławków, near the E 94 route. It occupies an area of about 28 ares (half a morgen) by a country road (ul. Nullo - ul. Podgórska) leading from Sławków to Krzykawka. There are 293 tombs there with matzevot of similar character, made in the first half of the 19th century of white or red sandstone. Almost 30% (85) of all tombstones are rectangular in shape. 55 matzevot display a multi-level division of the tombstone. In other words, a matzeva consists of a pedestal, an inscription area, usually separated from the abutment by a strip cornice, and is topped with an arch with a symbol in its excess panel. There is also an interesting type of tombstone considered to be an example of Art Nouveau. It is not seen in other cemeteries of the Olkusz region, It is rectangular in shape and with a separate pedestal. It features a meandering ornament and symbolic reliefs. Some of these tombstones reveal traces of black paint, and some have a flat, box-like form. There are 49 such Art Nouveau tombstones are in the cemetery in Krzykawka. Some others have the form of marble slabs, concrete tombs, carved tree trunks. The matzevot ornaments feature stylised palm leaves, the Tree of Life, animals, jugs over a bowl, hands in a priestly gesture, flat-carved books, quotes from the Bible. 

The building can be viewed from the outside.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 05/11/2015

Bibliography

• Decyzja nr A-1378/M w sprawie wpisania dobra kultury do rejestru zabytków nieruchomych województwa małopolskiego z dnia 30-10-2013, MWKZ Kraków Dziechciarz O., Przewodnik po ziemi olkuskiej, vol. II, Olkusz 2000
• Kiryk F., Zarys dziejów osadnictwa, [in:] Dzieje Olkusza i regionu olkuskiego, vol. I, Warszawa – Kraków 1978
• Rozmus D., Cmentarze żydowskie ziemi olkuskiej, Kraków 1999
• Rozmus D., Żydzi w Sławkowie i ich cmentarz. Zarys problematyki, [in:] Rozmus D., Hońdo L. (ed.) Cmentarze żydowskie w Dąbrowie Górniczej i Sławkowie, Kraków 2004